MONTREAL — A quick and easy dinner dish can be made from a few fresh ingredients and a few pantry shelf foods. Cans of beans of various types are good insurance to have on hand so you will be able to whip up something good in short order. Best-selling Australian cookbook author Donna Hay has just published a new cookbook called Fresh and Light (HarperCollins, $34.99) and it’s a gold mine of good, easy cooking, including this flavourful dish of beans, cherry tomatoes. pancetta and garlic. You could assemble it well ahead, then bake at the last minute. Hay’s distinctive layout is repeated in the new book, which has more than 180 recipes.

Oven-baked Beans

Serves 4

8 cloves garlic, peeled

3 cups (750 g) cherry tomatoes

100 g (½ cup) pancetta or cooked ham, chopped

6 sprigs fresh oregano

2 cans (540 g each) lima or white beans, drained, rinsed

½ cup chicken or vegetable stock

Grated Parmesan cheese

Toasted sourdough bread

Preheat oven to 400 degrees (200 C). Using a shallow baking dish, combine garlic, tomatoes, pancetta and oregano and bake for 30 minutes. Add beans and stock and bake another 10 minutes or until beans are hot through. Sprinkle dish with cheese and serve with toast.

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